Arabic-L:LING:Preferred Names Hadith

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 02 Aug 1999
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1) Subject: Preferred Names Hadith

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1)
Date: 02 Aug 1999
From: "A. FERHADI" <af3 at is2.nyu.edu>
Subject: Preferred Names Hadith

I thought this might be of ineterest to some of you, especially those
working on Arabic names. I was listening to BBC's Arabic Service on the
Internet while doing my work and heard a "Hadiith" on the 'loveliest, most
veracious as well as the ugliest' names as seen by God.

	"aHabb-ul asmaa'-i @ind allaah: @abd-u llaah (Abdullah) wa @bd-ur
raHmaan (Abdul-Rahman); wa aSdaquhaa: Haarith wa hammaam; wa aqbaHuhaa:
Harb wa murrah."

This brings to mind another one I learned at junior high: "xayr-ul asmaa'-i
maa Hummid-a wa @ubbid." Paraphrase: The best of names are those containing
the root H-m-d (e.g. Ahmad, Muhammad, Mahmood, Haamid ...) and those
prefixed with Abd. I  should ask my parents if they chose my name on that
basis.

--Ahmed Ferhadi
New York University

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End of Arabic-L: 02 Aug 1999